Jean M Twenge Ph.D.

The Paradox of the American Voter

How cultural psychology explains the political climate

The American political scene is a strange place these days. In a new study, my colleagues and I find some evidence for this strangeness: Americans are both more likely to be political Independents and more likely to hold extreme political views. Nearly half of American adults, and a whopping 59% of Millennials, say they are Independents. Yet the number who identify as “extremely” liberal or conservative has doubled.

How could people be more independent – usually perceived as not choosing sides – and have stronger views than ever? Cultural psychology has the answer: Individualism, a cultural system that focuses more on the self and less on large groups. In a series of studies, my co-authors and I have found that American culture is more individualistic now than in previous decades. Babies get more unique names, books use more individualistic words (including pronouns), and both high school and college students are more likely to see themselves as above average. (That’s why my book about the Millennials is titled Generation Me). When it’s all about you, and you are fantastic, there’s no reason not to hold extreme views. After all, you are right, and everyone else is wrong.

At the same time, Americans (especially Millennials) are distrustful of large institutions. Fewer affiliate with a religious group than previous generations did when they were young, and fewer believe in God. Fewer trust the government and fewer are interested in politics (contrary to the idea that Millennials are more interested in civic affairs – instead, the best evidence available from large surveys suggests that they are less interested than previous generations). But it’s not just government and religion: trust in large institutions is at all-time-lows across the board, even for groups such as medicine, schools, and universities. Apparently, Americans only trust themselves, a possible outcome of individualism reaching unprecedented levels. This distrust may be the root cause of much of the anger expressed during this election season. It also explains why so many people, especially Millennials, are political Independents: They dislike groups so much they don’t even want to check a box on their voter registration associated with a political party. Political parties are just about the least cohesive groups imaginable – they are too large for all members to ever meet – yet they are still too much groupiness in today’s highly individualistic climate.

Individualism has a lot of upsides, especially its embrace of equality. When group identities are set aside, the result is more equality based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and other individual differences. And political independents and extreme views are not problems by themselves. Yet if individualism is the cause of the incivility, dysfunction, and gridlock of today’s political landscape, we as a society need to carefully consider how we can change things. Maybe joining a group is not such a bad thing if it helps us get things done.

Here’s a partial list of Donald Trump's History of Corruption according to Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture.
- Trump’s casino bankruptcies, which left investors holding the bag while he skedaddled with their money
- Trump’s habit of refusing to pay contractors who had done work for him, many of whom are struggling small businesses
- Trump University, which includes not only the people who got scammed and the Florida investigation, but also a similar story from Texas where the investigation into Trump U was quashed.
- The Trump Institute, another get-rich-quick scheme in which Trump allowed a couple of grifters to use his name to bilk people out of their money
- The Trump Network, a multi-level marketing venture (a.k.a. pyramid scheme) that involved customers mailing in a urine sample which would be analyzed to produce for them a specially formulated package of multivitamins
- Trump Model Management, which reportedly had foreign models lie to customs officials and work in the U.S. illegally, and kept them in squalid conditions while they earned almost nothing for the work they did
- Trump’s employment of foreign guest workers at his resorts, which involves a claim that he can’t find Americans to do the work
- Trump’s use of hundreds of undocumented workers from Poland in the 1980s, who were paid a pittance for their illegal work
- Trump’s history of being charged with housing discrimination
- Trump’s connections to mafia figures involved in New York construction
- The time Trump paid the Federal Trade Commission $750,000 over charges that he violated anti-trust laws when trying to take over a rival casino company
http://ritholtz.com/2016/09/trumps-corruption/

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I see your point and for all I know, it might hold true for most members of my generation. All the same, many millennials, myself included, register as independents because the Democratic and Republican parties are in fundamental agreement over economic policies that are devastating to the American middle class.

For instance, both parties favor international trade agreements that permit jobs to be outsourced to 2nd and 3rd world nations where organized labor movements are nonexistent and workers are paid subsistence wages. The mainstream media has finally gotten around to discussing the effects of NAFTA on manufacturing in the United States (better late than never?) but opening the door to international trade and outsourcing also has had similar effects upon white collar industries--for example, legal employment in the private sector was decimated after the financial crisis, in part, because US law firms began shifting low level legal work to overseas, third-party support staff who perform tasks like doc review for less than 10% of what an associate is paid in the US.

Why do millennials care about economic policies? Because more and more members of my generation are waking up to the reality that they're unable to build futures for themselves in this country. We're working "middle-class" jobs in metropolitan areas where increases in cost of living expenses have grossly outpaced the growth of wages. Added to this, the costs of attending college and graduate school have sky-rocketed to the point that many members from my generation will be stuck for the next decade repaying their student loans. Neither the Republican nor the Democratic party has proffered sensible wealth redistribution policies or programs to ease student debt burdens, and millennials are aware of these failures.

Last, but certainly not least, many members of my generation know that Donald Trump AND Hillary Clinton are morally bankrupt. Trump is a narcissist through-and-through, but Clinton is a demagogue. When she realized Sanders had struck a chord with voters by taking stands on issues that are relevant to young people's concerns, she began parroting his talking points and promoting policies that she had never endorsed before the election cycle. Why does this matter? Because it rightfully detracts from her credibility, and young people know that what a politician says in an election cycle and what a politician does once in office can be two very, very different things. In critiquing Barak Obama's failure to deliver on his campaign promises, Noam Chomsky favorably quoted Sarah Palin, who said "where is all this hope-y, change-y?"

The point is that establishment politicians have absolutely zero credibility, and NO, this is not the fault of my generation; this is the fault of politicians who say one thing, and then do another and who disguise policies that are meant to benefit corporate constituencies at the expense of the public interest.

Many members of my generation, and many Trump voters for that matter, viewed Bernie Sanders favorably because he is an honest, authentic candidate whose platforms have been consistent over his years in office and are responsive to middle and working class concerns. The same cannot be said for Clinton and certainly cannot be said for Trump.

The main point that I'm trying to make is that there are plenty of legitimate, POLITICAL reasons to justify registering as an independent voter. Shifts in Americans' psychological makeups might explain this realignment of political affiliations. But that begs the question: why seek a psychological explanation for a political phenomena when a political explanation will do nicely? Liberal disillusionment explains the lack of young voters' support for Hillary Clinton is this election cycle: